The subject matter disclosed in the present application relates to a system for supporting a user of an electrically driven vehicle such as an electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
Electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are becoming more and more popular because of their environmental and economical perspectives. Such electrically driven vehicles need to be equipped with a sufficiently charged battery in the vehicle. Otherwise, there may occur a risk that the remaining driving distance becomes insufficient or even that the battery may run out. When becoming aware of the risk of a battery shortage, the user needs to find a remedy for the situation and currently, charging of the battery is then required which can be performed by the user at a public charging station or at a parking space with charging station equipment. However, since it currently takes a long time to charge the battery, unlike fuelling a car having a combustion engine, if a user finds the charging station occupied, the user may need to wait for hours or to find another place for charging.
For drivers and/or co-drivers of electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (in the following sometimes referred to as users), the available remaining driving distance and a potential risk of a battery shortage on the way are among the main worrying issues, especially since the battery capacity is typically limited and, currently even if the battery is fully charged, the maximum distance in the best condition is typically less than 200 km. Such poor battery capacity is one reason that increases the risk of the battery shortage. In order to have a sufficient available remaining driving distance and in order to avoid the occurrence of a battery shortage on the way, users of electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles need to sufficiently charge the battery and keep attention on the power level. However, because of the time that is currently necessary for charging the battery, the users may often not rely on usability of public charging stations, when needed. In view of such problems, there have been considered charging-station booking systems allowing users of electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to make reservations for charging stations in advance of a planned trip.
For example, US 2011/0032110 A1 proposes an electric power amount information output device for a vehicle comprising a control section checks, prior to the trip after setting an departure point and a destination point, whether a remaining electric power amount of a battery of a motor-driven vehicle at the departure point is less than a total electric power amount required for the vehicle to travel to the destination point. The control section drives an output section to output insufficiency information indicating that the remaining electric power amount of the battery is insufficient, if the remaining electric power amount is less than the required total electric power amount.
However, since the proposed device of US 2011/0032110 A1 is merely relating to an operation at the departure point, prior to the actual trip, for reserving a charging station statically but is not handling the reservation dynamically during travelling, the inventors of the present application have considered that there remains a problem that the user of the electric vehicle or the plug-in hybrid electric vehicles may still suffer from the risk of a battery shortage due to unexpected incidents and influences such as traffic conditions, including traffic accidents, traffic jams and road work, and/or weather conditions that may occur dynamically during travelling. In particular, such static charging station reservation planning as proposed in US 2011/0032110 A1 does not provide any capacities for handling dynamic situation changes. For example, it is considered by the inventors that if the user is caught in a heavy traffic jam, there may be the increased risk of a battery shortage occurring in the traffic jam and/or there may occur the risk that the traffic jam leads to a delay which may make it impossible to reach a reserved charging station within the reserved time slot.